


Judge, Jury, and Everyone Else

by The_Little_Sun



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, It's Chara what do you expect, Sans gets thrown under the bus a bit, Selectively Mute Frisk, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 03:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7918519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Little_Sun/pseuds/The_Little_Sun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Do you love your brother?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Judge, Jury, and Everyone Else

**Author's Note:**

> Eheheh oops another oneshot  
> Inspired by Papchat

**Papyrus**

Papyrus hadn’t made spaghetti for breakfast, opting for a bowl of dry cereal. The milk had long since gone bad and Sans hadn't noticed yet, so Papyrus was more than willing to keep it in the fridge and deal with its putrid smell to see his older brother down a glass of it. Sans had been the one who was suppose to get groceries last time so it Sans could only really blame himself for it. Actually, now that Papyrus thought about it, Sans hadn't gotten  _ anything.  _ No wonder Papyrus could only find ketchup, dry noodles, and cereal. He should really go and get some food before Sans could use this as another excuse to disappear at Grillby’s for hours. 

Papyrus pushed himself away from the table and went to put his bowl next to the sink. He angrily noted that the sink was already full of dishes that he had used last night but put off cleaning. Nothing wrong with quickly taking care of this mess before heading out, right? It wasn’t like Sans would wake up any time soon, so Papyrus was sure he’d have plenty of time to wash the dishes  _ and _ go get groceries. 

Carefully tucking his scarf around his neck a few extra times and rolling up his sweater sleeves, Papyrus went to work on scrubbing the dishes. Whether it was because he was so focused or just couldn't hear over the running water, he didn't notice Sans shuffle into the kitchen.

“Mornin’ bro.” Papyrus nearly dropped a plate in surprise. Sans came up to peer over the counter. “Bit early for chores, ain't it?”

“It is never too early, brother! We can't be always be leaving dirty dishes in the sink!” 

“Sure Paps.” Papyrus heard his brother moved over to the fridge to get out the milk. There was a moment of silence before a slosh and tired grumble. Papyrus listened for any sound of disgust, but there was none. Instead, Sans appeared back at Papyrus’ elbow with a glass of spoiled milk in hand. How did he not notice the absolutely putrid stench? Sans merely watched, occasionally taking a sip of his nasty milk while Papyrus finished the dishes. 

Papyrus dried off his hands and carefully refolded the towel. He hung it on the refrigerator's handle. Sans finished his drink and, after a glare, washed it out. He still left it in the sink, but Papyrus wasn’t feeling like pushing it. 

“So, what are you doin’ today?”

Papyrus heard Sans follow him back into the living room. He stopped in front of the TV to turn and face his older brother. “Training.”

“Cool. What time do you think you’ll be back?”

Papyrus knew what this conversation meant. Sans was going to disappear into his “secret” lab and attempt to get that stupid machine to work. It was a lost cause, but whatever got Sans everyday.  _ Papyrus couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. _ “Same time as usual, Sans. Why?”

“No reason, just wonderin’. Last time you got home early and entirely covered in spaghetti sauce. The carpet cannoli have so many sauce stains removed.”

“One, that was horrible. And two, you wouldn’t bother trying to get stains out of the carpet.”

Sans looked surprised at the snapped comment- _ insult? _ He held up his hands with a sheepish smile. “Sorry, bro.”

Papyrus didn’t look appeased. “Regardless, you are  _ really _ trying to get me to out of the house today.”

“What? That’s not-”

“Oh! Then you want to spend the day with your great brother? Wonderful! I’ll just call Undyne and tell her that I wouldn’t be coming to training today. What a brilliant idea, Sans!”

* * *

 

**Undyne**

If a door could cry, the skeleton brothers’ front door would be a weeping mess. The door’s archenemy was stomping up and she did  _ not _ look happy. Although she was still surprisingly violent when she was happy. So regardless of her mood, the door would be kicked down. And kick it down she did. 

“PAPYRUS!”

Her shout startled Sans awake. He rolled off the couch and sat up with a hand on his head. It took a moment for his vision to focus on the angry Guard Captain. “Undyne, what are you doin’ here?”

Undyne tapped her foot impatiently while Sans clambered to his feet. “Where’s Papyrus?” 

“That’s a great question. Wasn’t he suppose to be with you?” 

“What do you think?” Undyne snapped. “Training started fifteen minutes ago and Papyrus is never late!”

Before Sans could even answer, she had marched up the stairs and kicked open Papyrus’ door. “Hey!” Sans scrambled after her, fuming. “Paps just fixed that door from the last time you threw a tantrum.” Undyne was standing in the center of Papyrus’ room when Sans poked his head in. She looked beyond pissed. Sans decided to stay in the hallway with the wall acting as a barrier between him and the angry fish. He had no desire to end up like the poor door. Undyne glanced over at Sans and rolled her eyes before walking over to the closet. Sans watched her, confusion plainly written across his face. 

She gently rapped her knuckles on the door. In a concerningly soft voice, she asked, “Papyrus, you in there?”

Sans was just about ready to make a joke about Papyrus having skeletons in the closet, but the thought was derailed when an equally quiet voice came from inside the closet. “Hi Undyne.”

“You’re late to training.”   


There was a pause before Papyrus mumbled something that Sans couldn’t make out. Undyne apparently heard since she suddenly wrenched the door open, stepped in, and slammed it shut. Undyne’s voice had returned to its usual volume, although the door muffled it. With a sinking heart, Sans crept closer.

“You’re never late, Papyrus. What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing,” Papyrus mumbled, “I’m just overreacting.” 

Undyne let out an amused huff. “Overreacting? You went and hid in your closet for Asgore’s sake. So come on, what’s eating you up all of a sudden?”

“I can’t tell you.”   


“And why not?”

“ _ Sans. _ ” Papyrus’ voice had become a harsh whisper, as if Sans was in the closet with them. 

Sans froze. Was Papyrus saying that he was the problem or was it that Papyrus knew he was listening? Either way, it seemed like a good time to take a shortcut. With a small pop of displaced air, Sans stepped into the living room. Right next to the couch even. How perfect. He didn’t get much more than a second to slump against the sad couch before thudding footsteps alerted him to Undyne’s presence. 

She placed herself right in front of the skeleton and poked at his chest. “If I were you, I’d run upstairs and check on your brother.” With that, she stormed back to the front door and with an angry backwards glance, stepped out into the snow.

Sans couldn’t bring himself to move.  _ Who does she think she is? _ And of course, Undyne decided to pop her head back into the house. She fixed him another glare-honestly, it must be her natural expression-and snapped, “Stop being a lazyass and start acting like a brother!”

* * *

 

**Alphys**

The cameras were probably her best friends. Not that she didn’t have friends! She had wonderful, supportive friends! It’s just the cameras made her feel like she was the most important monster in the underground. She knew what was going on, she could see almost anywhere, and this gave her a perfect reason to occasionally call Undyne! Although she could call Undyne whenever and Undyne really liked to call her almost every other hour...but that was beside the point! Maybe it was because she could see how her friends were doing and, if need be, try to help. They were always there for her, this was her way of being there for them! 

Alphys’ current target was Papyrus. A few days ago, she had noticed that Undyne had gone to Snowden and barged into the skeletons’ house. This wasn’t unusual, but the following phone call asking her to keep tabs on Papyrus was. Undyne had sounded upset and complained about Sans some before she hung up. Were the brothers fighting? 

Alphys had kept all the cameras in the Snowden area fixed to the paths and buildings that Papyrus and Sans frequented. She immediately noticed that Papyrus would leave early, either to check on his puzzles or to visit Undyne. Sans would leave a good hour later. He didn’t hurry like his younger brother, instead, Sans would stop to chat or pop in to that bar. In fact, Sans spent more in the bar then at home. Curious, Alphys had given Undyne a call.

“Hey Nerd!”

“Hi Undyne. Can I-I ask you something?”

“What’s up? Does this have to do with Papyrus?”

Alphys fiddled with a pen and gave her computer screen another glance. “Yeah. Well, I guess, it’s m-more about Sans.”

Undyne snorted. “Alright, fire away. But everything I know about him comes straight from Pap.”

“T-that’s fine! Has Papyrus mentioned Sans spending a lot of time in that Grillby’s place?”

“It sounds like he practically lives there!”

“That’s what it's looking like, t-too.”

Undyne must have held her phone away for a moment because all Alphys could hear was angry muttering. “Undyne?”

“Oh, sorry Al. This just gets me riled up.”

“I’m sure that whatever is going on will blow over. T-thanks for the help though.”

“Anything for my favorite nerd!”

Alphys laughed. “Bye Undye.”

She flipped her phone onto her desk and leaned back in her chair. Okay. It seems like Sans is never home. Maybe Papyrus is lonely? They hadn't really talked except when they bumped into each other while hanging around with Undyne. On the other hand she knew Sans a bit better, but she really didn't want to get involved in any family issues.

That left only one option. The Undernet. Alphys minimized the camera feed windows and logged into her Undernet account. There were a few messages, almost all of them from Undyne and even one from Sans-it was asking if she could double check a few equations. She could answer it later. Because what really had her attention was an ancient message from Papyrus. 

CoolSkeleton95 said:  _ Hi Doctor! You ran off before I could say hello while at Undyne’s party yesterday. I hope you are doing well! _

It said that Papyrus happened to be online. Alphys tapped the K key thoughtfully. She erased all the stray K’s then hastily typed a message.

ALPHYS said:  _ Hi Papyrus! Sorry I never responded… :/ _

CoolSkeleton95 said:  _ Do not fret! I am also horrible at responding to messages. _

ALPHYS said:  _ So what’s up? _

CoolSkeleton95 said:  _ I am waiting for Sans to come home so I can surprise him with dinner! _

ALPHYS said:  _ Wow that’s nice of you. _

CoolSkeleton95 said:  _ Sans doesn’t like people knowing about his problems, but he’s been down lately. I figured maybe something made by his cool brother would help. _

ALPHYS said:  _ I’m sure it will. What did you make? _

CoolSkeleton95 said: _ I tried to remake his favorite from Grillby’s. If I can start making the food he likes, then maybe he will stay home more. _

ALPHYS said:  _ He doesn’t come home? _

CoolSkeleton95 said:  _ Sometimes. _

CoolSkeleton95 edited the comment:  _ I apologize! I didn’t mean to dump my problems on you. It was wonderful talking to you, but I best be making sure something doesn’t burn. _

ALPHYS said:  _ Alright, bye. _

Alphys tapped at the keyboard for another minute, staring at Papyrus’ icon. It had switched to show he was off-line. So was this what Undyne had been talking about? Alphys hurriedly found Sans’ account and left him a message. She ignored the fact that all her other messages that still showed up in the chatlog were unanswered.

ALPHYS said:  _ Have you checked on Papyrus? _

* * *

 

**FRISK**

Frisk hadn’t wanted to mention anything the first time they had run into the skeleton brothers this timeline. There was something sad and dark clinging to Papyrus that they hadn’t noticed before. The voice at the back of their mind wasn’t the only one concerned about the new and sudden change. Frisk didn’t want to be rude and say anything in front of Papyrus so they settled down to go through his puzzles.They waited until Papyrus had spun away from Alphys’ ‘never-worked-once’ puzzle to approach Sans. 

“Hey kiddo,” Sans started, “you-”

“Pap.”

Sans looked taken aback. “It speaks!”

Frisk frowned and pointed past the skeleton’s shoulder. “Pap.”

“I’m gonna need a little more than just ‘Pap’.”

“Pap.” Frisk mimed wiping their eyes. Sans still looked blank. “Sad?”

That registered a lot better. He even looked like he was taking a moment to think about the question. “I told ya that he’s been kinda out of it lately. Otherwise, Paps’ fine.” Frisk put their hands on their hips and glared. Sans shrugged. “Go run up ahead and ask him yourself.”

Frisk pointed at Sans again and scowled. “Brother.”

“What?”

“Pap brother.”

Sans rolled his eyes. Hm, he must be as frustrated as them. “And?”

Their throat was starting to hurt from the effort of saying the few words. Frisk hopped up and down and angrily pointed past Sans. He pointed back. Frisk held their hands to their ears. “Listen!” Sans shrugged. Frisk made an inappropriate gesture. There was a cackling from the back of their subconscious. At least someone was enjoying the situation.

Sans glared at them before short cutting away. He wasn’t the only one annoyed at how the conversation went. Frisk chucked their stick at the ground and grumbled. They had expected that they wouldn’t get very far, but it still left an angry sting. With a huff, Frisk swept up the stick and marched on to find Papyrus. The soft cackling had morphed into whispers and Frisk wasn’t ready to listen to them yet. 

* * *

 

**CHARA**

Yellow light filtered through the windows. If it hadn’t been their thirtieth time reloading into the room, Chara would have been astounded by how big and beautiful the hall was. Maybe Frisk still was amazed by everything. Not that it really mattered at the moment considering the current bane of Chara’s existence was waiting up ahead. 

This time Chara knew that they’d win.

Sans stretched when the child came closer. “Ready for another round, creep?”

“I do believe so. Although I have a question.”

“A question?” Sans snorted. “About how many runs that you’ve slaughtered everyone in? How many monsters’ dust is clinging to your stupid sweater?”

Chara smiled at the bitter words. He was already worked up. This would be a cinch. They shook their head. “Nothing like that. I keep a better count than you. No, what I want to ask is whether you love your brother or not.”

Sans actually took a step back. His eyes narrowed, but there was no blue and yellow light that announced his attack. “What kind of question is that?”

“ A decent one, I believe. And is it really all that strange? I used to have a brother too, you know.” At Sans’ silence, Chara took a step forward and continued. “My brother was wonderful. He listened to me, was always there when I found myself in a predicament, he really cared for me. It was a nice change from what I had come from. My surface family would never hug me or help me up after a nasty trip. But my real family would and I loved them for it. My brother was even willing to help me break the barrier. I died-it was horrible, although I’m sure you know that-and you know what Asriel did? He stayed by my side until my body grew cold. He wept and begged for me to come back.” Chara’s voice had grown soft, but they suddenly met Sans’ eyes with a burning anger. “You know what he did after he absorbed my soul?  _ He was weak! _ He didn’t get the other six souls. He didn’t change save monsterkind!  _ He let them rot.  _ He didn’t care about monsters. He didn’t care about his family. He didn’t care about me!  _ I DIED FOR NOTHING! _ ”

Sans had backed as Chara’s words grew more shrill. Their grip on the knife tightened and for a moment, all they could see was Asriel’s smiling face. When they shook their head to rid themselves of the image, they found that Sans had gotten a good few feet away. The look on his face was beautiful. He got what they were saying. That wouldn’t stop them from ramming it home.

“I don’t understand.” Sans’ voice was weak.

Chara laughed, a mocking but cheery sound. “Of course you do! A sibling that dies for nothing? Because their stupid older brother decided to let everyone get turned to dust because why should they care? You don’t care. Not about yourself, not your friends, not Papyrus. Bit sad isn’t it? You throw your all into this fight because this is the only thing you  _ can _ do. But you won’t stand up to protect your brother? I’ve killed him, Frisk has killed him, and that sorry excuse for a flower has too. Don’t you see?”

IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT

Sans shook his head, fingers clawing at his skull. Tears dripped down his face. Chara was impressed. They hadn’t expected this much of a reaction. Somewhere, tucked away deep in their subconscious, Frisk’s voice asked if it was really necessary. Maybe not, but was it fun.

“This has been a blast, but I do have a schedule to keep to.” 

Sans didn’t appear to hear them. With careful steps, Chara walked over to him. He must have been stuck in head. Interesting. However, they weren’t kidding about the time. With a flick of their wrist, they dug the knife into Sans’ chest. His eyes went dark and he looked up at them, surprise etched into his features. Chara leaned down until they were only inches from his face. They smiled.

“Well? Do you love your brother?”

There was an echoing sob before all Chara held was a dust knife and stained blue jacket. They chucked it away with a disgusted noise. They stared at it for a moment before shrugging and moving out of the once-astounding hall.

“Guess not.”


End file.
